She's a Healthy Eater!

Today, Marika and I went on her first preschool field trip. And where did we go? We went to one of the local grocery stores... of course, I know you're wondering, "well, what did they do?"

Well, they didn't do very much, but they sure did have a lot of fun! They got free samples of cheese and cookies, pet a doomed lobster (poor thing!), and shivered in the giant ice cream freezer.

Perhaps best of all, they got a goody bag containing cheerios and a granola bar (plus some other stuff) and a coupon for a free apple or banana.

Meanwhile... at Mika's school... the principal offered that any student achieving their reading goal for the first trimester got a chance to dunk him. Her principal is a very cool fellow - very enthusiastic, interactive, and encouraging. I wasn't there, but a friend said that Mika managed to hit the target TWICE with the tennis ball (no small feat!), but it was never hard enough to dunk the principal - so a teacher finished the job for her (they offered, but she was too shy to go up there and do it herself). I was so proud of her for hitting the target! That's our girl!

After a really slow first 5 weeks, we figured out the curriculum and pushed Mika to read more. Practice makes perfect, right? She's almost done with her current reading level and hopefully after next week, will start reading chapter books for the next level. Woohoo!

Long Live the Queen of Black!

Marika insisted on wearing all black yesterday to preschool, because she wanted to be the "Queen of Black". We had no idea why, but Marika usually has a reason for these kinds of things. We dressed her up, but minutes before we left, she spilled milk all over her clothes. I tried to blow-dry it, but we all KNOW how stinky old milk gets. I told her she either had to be smelly at preschool or she had to change her clothes. She looked like she was going to cry but bravely agreed to get new clothes. I felt really bad for her (apparently, dressing in all black was very important to her), so I dug through the "too small" clothes we had removed from her closet - just 2 weeks ago - and put them on her.

So, here is our "Queen of Black", dressed up in her too small clothes for school! Everything she's wearing is 2T!!! But she was happy as a clam. When I asked her teacher if she knew anything about being the "Queen of Black", she laughed and said that every month, she picks a color (the color for the entire month of October was black) and on each day of school, whoever is wearing the most of that color, is named the "Queen" or "King" of black. Undoubtedly, Marika won the title yesterday - with no contest!

It was also their "Outdoors Day", where they got to spend the entire morning outside! They did a bean bag toss, went on a hike, ate S'Mores and played in a tent. Apparently, the Santa Ana winds were blowing and blew the tent a good 30 feet! They seemed to have such a great time.

Afterwards, we brought a picnic lunch to Daddy Dude at his office. Who doesn't love fried chicken with a juice box? Marika was exhausted, though (she ran at Jogger's Club in the morning at Mika's school) and passed out on the way to pick up Mika.

The girls were busy over the weekend, being creative in all sorts of interesting ways. On Saturday, I gave them a bunch of foam stickers and asked them to create a picture. They ended up just going crazy with Halloween foam stickers, until I reminded them that I had asked for a picture. Mika ended up paper piecing a bunch of circles that Holly had given them - and created Batman! You can't see it, but he DOES have a cape on (it hooks onto the lace to keep him on the picture). Marika decided that Batman was lonely and made Robin to keep him company. I cracked up when I saw Robin's mask and letter! I love the ideas they come up with!

The girls also decided that the stairs needed to be livened up a little bit. We had to limbo under those things for awhile... =)

Mika sent a couple of emails this week, something I don't like to push her to do, since she has so much homework and reading to do (she needs time to be a kid!) on most days. I loved how serious and intent she was, as she diligently typed her message to Daddy Dude. I guess in a few years, she'll be a texting fiend!

In other news, we've been taking care of Flower, a friend of Daisy's. Flower has settled in very nicely with us, allowing the girls to pet her and not scurrying away. Flower's mom had told me she didn't eat lettuce, but she whined so pathetically (for the first couple of days) when Daisy got her lettuce at every meal, that we gave her some anyway. Flower apparently thinks that lettuce is the best thing in the world - she scarfs it down even faster than Daisy! We've also discovered that she loves tomatoes and likes carrots. Grapes and apples were still a no-go. I do believe, Flower is growing rather fond of us... and why shouldn't she? Two little girls constantly chatter and coo at her, giving her biscuits and hay whenever they can... =) (but Daisy may be feeling a little jealous!).

And in case some of you were wondering how the ladybug larvae were doing... well... we're down to one really big larva. I think that the larvae must have been eating each other (despite getting aphids) and finally, only the strongest has survived. I hope/expect it to pupate any day, but until I can find a recipe for making ladybug artificial food diet, this may be the last time we raise any ladybug larvae. Watching the ladybug larvae prey on slow-moving and clueless aphids is a little disconcerting... like watching the Discovery Channel without the music and narration! We call it our "Ladybug TV". Marika, however, has really been enjoying the experience.

Supplies: patterned paper (Hot Off the Press, DMC), cardstock and templates (Bazzill), floss (DMC)

And finally, I finished a layout! This took quite a long time to create, for all for the stitching I added! I'd been wanting to use my In'Stitchz Bazzill templates for some time now.

Rise and Shine!

I'm taking the week off from running (to give my old joints a break), but the problem with biking (when you don't have a light) is that it has to be bright enough outside so you don't get run over by a car. The best part of biking, though, is to watch the sun rise...

The shot on the left was taken at about 6:10 am... the one on the right about 5 minutes later. I actually had to go home just before the official sunrise (said to be 6:42 am), but the most fantastic part really, is the early stages. The mountains are a gorgeous backdrop and seeing the pink and yellow colors streaking against the sky... breath-taking! How can anybody's morning start off badly after seeing this?

It was another day of volunteering today - Marika's school celebrated their "Fall Fling", where it was all about apples and pumpkins. I was at the "Apple Math" table, where kids made apples and drew apple seeds. The festival didn't end until 11 am or so, so I helped out in the classroom (it made no sense to drive home for 10 minutes, before having to drive back again). Once again, the preschoolers were very sweet and very cooperative while we worked on their paint projects. They're neater than kindergarteners and so much kinder to parent volunteers!

This list hanging in the classroom made me laugh. The teacher asked them for words that start with "C" or "D". You can see what it's on their adorable little minds...

And last but not least - Grandma's here! She's been traveling around (again) for the past month so the girls were pleasantly surprised and happy to see her. They even helped Grandma prepare a sashimi dinner and Grandma let them wash the dishes (I'll admit it, I was holding my breath the whole time, but nothing disastrous happened).

On the bad side... another local fire was brewing this morning (3 miles or so away) and Grandma said she saw something else brewing on the horizon when she arrived this afternoon. This area certainly has enough problems to deal with, without having to worry about fires (especially those set by arsonists). *sigh*

A Day in the Life of a Preschooler

I never volunteered when Mika was in preschool, since I was afraid it would have been too difficult with a 2-year old Marika by my side. This year, however, I promised Marika I'd help out. Today was my first day to get a glimpse of "a day in the life of Marika at preschool".


It was fun to see her interacting with other children and the teacher. She was definitely more interactive and sociable than I had expected (which was great!) and seemed to listen quite well. I like her teacher and think she does a good job of trying to teach them things and maintaining classroom order (never an easy feat).

Today, it was my job to help the kids paint their handprints for their Christmas presents to the family. I was surprised at how sweet and quiet the preschoolers were - it was so easy to work with them! Helping out last year in Mika's kindergarten classroom was definitely much more work and sometimes quite stressful. Who knew one year could make such a big difference?

Sadly, I can't volunteer in Mika's classroom this year because I can't bring Marika with me. So, at least once a week we take a pile of materials from the teacher and help collate assignments. Marika, ever my sweet and faithful little helper (and sorely disappointed that we can't help out in her big sister's classroom), insists on being my automated stapling machine.

Daddy Dude had to work last weekend, so we kept things pretty mellow. Sunday was "game" day - I played soccer in the morning and was happy that the ref did not threaten to throw me out this time. In the game before ours, I heard that the ref (the same one who ruined my day last week) actually carded somebody who slid (like I had last week) two times and threw her out! I still can't believe it - I just can't. At any rate, we ended up forfeiting on a technicality and lost 1-0 to the team that will probably be the 1st place finishers (again).

In the afternoon, we went to Daddy Dude's game. The girls enjoyed the chance to parade around with their umbrellas (as their parasols). It was a very exciting game, but unfortunately, it was a painful loss - Daddy Dude's team had to relinquish their first place status back to the other team. *sigh*. Daddy Dude finished the season batting just under 0.300 but was on the leader board (top 10) for top RBI's within the league. Pretty cool, eh? He made three fantastic outs (with dramatic flair!) at third base - I was so proud!

Supplies: cardstock (Bazzill, DCWV), patterned paper (DCWV), diecuts (Quickutz)

I didn't get any "alone" time today (and won't on Thursday, either) but was able to finish a layout over the past few days. This is based on a Becky Higgins' sketch for 11 photos (I was glad to get so many photos on the page but not particularly happy that there wasn't much room to do anything else). We enjoy spending several of the major holidays throughout the year with our very good friends and July 4th was certainly no exception. Who knew I could find paper to match H.'s patriotic strawberries? =)

First day of preschool!

Today was Marika's first day of preschool. My baby's all grown up! (*sniff, sniff*). Daddy Dude went to work a little late to make sure he could see her off to school.

She looked spiffy with her new shirt, new shoes and new Lightning McQueen backpack. Once there, she hung up her backpack, put her snack bag in her cubbyhole, signed in (herself!) and then started her first assignment. I know we prepared her well, but it was still a little shocking to see her be "so ready" - to start a new chapter in her life and separate herself a little further from us. *sigh* She happily and confidently waved bye to us and turned to read a book.

Here is Marika with her teacher, Ms. J. This was from her "Meet the Teacher" a couple of days ago. I can't even begin to imagine what she'll look like at the end of the school year! Will her cheeks still be so lovably plump? *sniff, sniff*

(Almost) Flying!

I think Marika's finally gotten the hang of propelling herself on the swing. I hope! I have this depressing image of her sitting on the swing at preschool, forlorn and weepy, because she can't make herself go. I keep telling her that it's a wonderful feeling to be empowered and be able to do everything you want to do, but... perhaps the ultimate reward of swinging up to the moon is still a few weeks ago. She swung for a little while and then appeared worn out from the effort. Well, at least she moved onto something else and didn't whine for me to push her - that is progress, too!

We had some old bread in the freezer, so we went to share our goodies with the ducks. Good thing we brought a mere 3 pieces of bread, because there were only a handful of hungry ducks about. Lately, they've been hanging out on the grass, which is nice - I don' t have to worry about fishing out any little girls who fall into the dirty pond water!

And of course, my trusty bug hunter found a roly poly at the playground... it was a good start to her day. We had stopped by this particular park on the way to her (hopefully) future preschool, to check up on her status on the fall wait list. I called around 12:05 am on January 1st to give her the best shot of getting near the top of the list (it worked for Mika - she was #1 or #2 on the list). Marika appeared to be a bit further down - they say they might start calling new students as soon as the end of next week, so please keep your fingers crossed!